United States Department of Agriculture

Food Safety and Inspection Service

Food Safety vs. Food Defense:

Differences and Similarities
Protecting the Middle East Food Supply
from Intentional Contamination
MEPI
January 29-31, 2008
Cairo, Egypt
Dr. Carol Maczka, Ph.D.
Assistant Administrator
Office of Food Defense and Emergency Response
Food Safety and Inspection Service
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
1

United States Department of Agriculture

Food Safety and Inspection Service

Presentation Outline

Who we are; our mission

What is food defense?
Why are we concerned about the food supply?
Examples of unintentional contamination and
intentional contamination
Differences between food safety and food defense:

Outcomes
Contaminants/Agents
Methods of Analysis
Prevention & Control Strategies
Decontamination and Disposal
Communications
2

United States Department of Agriculture

Food Safety and Inspection Service

Who we are; Our mission

U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS)

Public health agency in U.S. Department of Agriculture
Mission: responsible for ensuring that U.S. supply of meat,
poultry, egg products is safe--including safe from intentional
contamination--wholesome, correctly labeled and packaged
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Scientific regulatory agency in U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services
Mission: responsible for ensuring that nations drugs, medical
devices, cosmetics, and food are safeincluding safe from
intentional contamination
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Scientific regulatory agency
Mission: responsible for implementation of federal laws that
protect the environment. Also responsible for water
infrastructure protection, including protecting U.S. water
supply from intention contamination
3

United States Department of Agriculture

Food Safety and Inspection Service

Food Defense vs. Food Safety

Food Safety the protection of food products from
unintentional contamination by agents reasonably
likely to occur in the food supply (e.g., E. coli,
Salmonella, Listeria)
Food Defense the protection of food products from
intentional contamination by biological, chemical,
physical, or radiological agents that are not
reasonably likely to occur in the food supply
Note: Food Security is the reliable availability of a
sufficient quantity and quality of nutritious food for a
population
4

United States Department of Agriculture

Food Safety and Inspection Service

Why Are We Concerned about

the Food Supply?

Food supply is soft target

Intelligence: terrorists have discussed food
Documents found in Afghanistan caves used by al Qaeda
specify how to contaminate food
Manuals for intentional contamination of food are widely
available on internet
No specific targeting information indicating attack on food
supply is imminent
Deliberate contamination could cause:
significant public health consequences;
widespread public fear;
devastating economic impacts;
loss of public confidence in the safety of food and
effectiveness of government
5

United States Department of Agriculture

Food Safety and Inspection Service

Examples of
Unintentional Contamination
vs.
Intentional Contamination

United States Department of Agriculture

Food Safety and Inspection Service

Unintentional Contamination
March/April 1985 >16,000
confirmed illnesses and up to 17
deaths in six state area from
pasteurized milk contaminated
with Salmonella typhimurium
Milk was produced at a single
dairy plant in Midwest
Contamination due to improper
piping

United States Department of Agriculture

Food Safety and Inspection Service

Unintentional Contamination
September 1994 150 people ill from ice
cream contaminated with Salmonella
enteritidis
Ice cream was produced in a single facility
Contamination due to transport of ice cream
mix in tanker truck previously used to haul
unpasteurized liquid eggs

United States Department of Agriculture

Food Safety and Inspection Service

Unintentional Contamination
Water Contamination in
Hurricane Katrinas Aftermath
Water contaminated with chemicals: gasoline in gas
tanks, oil in crank cases, lead in batteries, asbestos in
brake pads, brake and transmission fluids, coolant
Water contaminated with biological contaminates - flood
water contains potentially harmful microbes: animal
feces from pets, livestock, and wild animals; natural
bacteria in the environment; human waste; and dead
bodies of both humans and animals

United States Department of Agriculture

Food Safety and Inspection Service

Intentional Contamination
1984 Cult members added Salmonella
bacteria to restaurant salad bars in Oregon
Intent: affect
outcome of a local
election
Result:
751 illnesses reported
45 individuals required
hospitalization

10

United States Department of Agriculture

Food Safety and Inspection Service

Intentional Contamination
January 2003
Michigan supermarket
employee intentionally
contaminated 200
pounds of ground beef
with a nicotine-based
pesticide
92 individuals reported
becoming ill after
consuming the ground
beef
11

United States Department of Agriculture

Food Safety and Inspection Service

Intentional Contamination
The THREAT of intentional
contamination could pose
serious problems for public
health and the international
economy
Example 1989 threat of
cyanide in Chilean grapes
imported into the U.S.;
incident cost $200 million in
lost revenue

12

United States Department of Agriculture

Food Safety and Inspection Service

Outcomes
Food Safety: May involve many illnesses but
few deaths
Food Defense: Has potential to result in
many deaths.

13

United States Department of Agriculture

Food Safety and Inspection Service

Contaminants/Agents
Contaminant Type
Biological

Unintentional
Escherichia coli,
Salmonella, Listeria
montcytongenes

Intentional
Heat Resistant: Bacillus
anthracis (Anthrax),
Clostridium botulinum
Heat Sensitive: Yersina pestis
(Plague), Vibrio cholerae
(Cholera)

Chemical

Pesticide residues

Heat Resistant: Arsenic, Rat

Poison
Heat Sensitive: Ricin

Physical Hazards
Radiological

Metal, bone, rodent

droppings
Plutonium-238, cesium-137
14

United States Department of Agriculture

Food Safety and Inspection Service

Methods of Analysis
Food Safety: Risk Assessments: An
assessment is made of the magnitude and
severity of the adverse health outcome due
to the hazard and the likelihood it will occur
Food Defense: Vulnerability Assessments:
An assessment is made of a food system to
identify vulnerable products; potential sites
where contamination can be introduced; and
likely threat agents
15

United States Department of Agriculture

Food Safety and Inspection Service

Vulnerability Assessments Methodology

1. Perform screening assessment to identify and
prioritize products, agents, and/or process
combinations that warrant more detailed analysis
2. Perform Farm-to-Table CARVER + Shock
Vulnerability Assessments on priority foods

Methodology developed by U.S. FDA and FSIS for

assessing vulnerabilities in food systems from intentional
attacks
Examines health, economic, and psychological
consequences of an intentional attack
Simplifies and standardizes assessment
16

United States Department of Agriculture

Food Safety and Inspection Service

CARVER + Shock Method Overview

Develop flow diagram for each product/process
Farm to Table
Break food system into Subsystems, Complexes,
Components, and Nodes

Example: Ground Beef Production System

Subsystems Live Animal Production; Product
Processing; Product Distribution, Transportation
Complexes for Product Processing Subsystem
Slaughterhouse, Processing Facility
Components for Processing Facility Receiving
Area, Storage Area, Cutting/Trimming Area,
Grinding Area, Packaging Area
Node for Grinding Area combo bin
17

United States Department of Agriculture

Food Safety and Inspection Service

CARVER + Shock Method Overview

cont.
Assess each step or node of flow diagram; assign a
numerical score
Total the scores for each node and compare
Rank order nodes to determine which are most
vulnerable
Nodes with high scores are most vulnerable (most
likely targets for terrorist attack)

18

United States Department of Agriculture

Food Safety and Inspection Service

CARVER + Shock

Acronym; considers seven factors (attributes) that affect the

desirability of a target for attack:
Criticality Public health and economic impacts to achieve the
attackers intent
Accessibility Physical access to the target
Recuperability Ability of the system to recover from the
attack
Vulnerability Ease of accomplishing the attack
Effect Amount of direct loss from an attack
Recognizability Ease of identifying a target
Shock Psychological effects of an attack
Each factor has a measurable scale from 1 to 10 based on certain
criteria
Will be covered in detail tomorrow
19

United States Department of Agriculture

Food Safety and Inspection Service

Prevention and Control Strategies

Food Safety: Risk management strategies such as Good

Agricultural Practices (GAP); Good Management Practices
(GMP); good hygiene practices (GHP)/ Sanitation Standard
Operating Procedures (SSOP); and Hazard Analysis and Critical
Control Point ( HACCP)

Food Defense: Measures or actions (i.e., countermeasures)

taken to reduce the impact of intentional food contamination at
vulnerable points in a facility (e.g., personnel and physical
security), as well as government or industry-wide measures
(e.g., surveillance, outreach training)

20

United States Department of Agriculture

Food Safety and Inspection Service

Industry/Facility Countermeasures
Include:
Physical Security
Personnel Security
Operational Security
Equipment re-design
Change process technology to destroy threat agents
Assess facility-specific or industry-wide
vulnerabilities: CARVER + Shock Vulnerability
Assessment
Develop food defense plans based on results of
assessments
21

United States Department of Agriculture

Food Safety and Inspection Service

Government Countermeasures
Include:
Surveillance
e.g., Government inspection of critical nodes in
facilities, laboratory testing for threat agents in
food

Vulnerability assessments
Research
Outreach & training, including
e.g., Guidance, awareness training, food defense
exercises, international activities
22

United States Department of Agriculture

Food Safety and Inspection Service

Decontamination and Disposal

Food Safety: Contaminated food can be cooked
or sent to landfill. Sanitation procedures should
be sufficient for cleaning facility before
resuming food production
Food Defense: Contaminated food may be
hazardous waste. Need to identify
decontamination techniques and confirm facility
is free of residual contaminant before resuming
food production
23

United States Department of Agriculture

Food Safety and Inspection Service

Communications
Food Safety: Food safety education needed for
general public and good risk communication
strategies needed by industry and government.
Food Defense: Much public concern, therefore
extra consideration is needed when developing
risk communication and public education
messages
24

United States Department of Agriculture

Food Safety and Inspection Service

Summary
Differences between
Food Safety and Food Defense

Unintentional vs. intentional contamination

Outcomes
Contaminants
Methods of analysis
Prevention and control strategies
Decontamination and Disposal
Communications
25

United States Department of Agriculture

Food Safety and Inspection Service

Contact Information:
Carol Maczka, Ph.D.
Office of Food Defense & Emergency Response
Food Safety Inspection Service
01- 202 690-6540
carol.maczka@fsis.usda.gov
www.fsis.usda.gov

26